But now there's a new twist: the Postal Service wants to reclassify DVD mailing [PDF] as a competitive product, where the prices would not be limited by the rate of inflation, because it says that mailed DVDs compete with the internet, streaming services, and kiosks such as Redbox.

Uh.... so let me get this straight.... it sounds like the postal service is explicitly trying to kill off its own customers.

I'll take something the size of a full sized (ie not "Reader's Digest") magazine if, and only if, you can roll it up and/or fold it like a real magazine.

You jest, but in all seriousness, the day someone releases a device that does that, it will be a game-changer.

If it rolls up small enough to fit in the pocket or be used as a phone without looking like Dom Joly, but still has a screen big enough to make it worth using for web browsing, watching films or making video calls, then you will have a device that everyone will want.

I seem to recall some old English dude saying stuff about supply and demand... But sarcasm aside, isn't it about time we had some tangible breakthroughs in battery tech?

The problem isn't the batteries -- battery tech *is* improving year on year.

The problem is that we keep demanding more from our batteries.

Our mobile devices are being loaded up with retina screens, wi-fi, and all the other new goodies you can think of, and simultaneously we're demanding that they're thinner and lighter with every generation. Seriously, a current iPad would choke if it had to survive on the battery tech even from the original iPad.

It also means they are telling you that they didn't make any real changes and are charging you for the service pack they refuse to create for 8.0.

Well, it would mean that, except that it's a free upgrade.

So, uh, it basically is a service pack. They could just as easily have released the same product as Win 8.0 SP1.

The reason they're calling it 8.1 rather than SP1 is marketing -- they want it to *sound* like a bigger upgrade than it is, so that it distances itself a little (but not too much) from the tarnished reputation of 8.0.

In fact, the biggest change in 8.0 -> 8.1 is IE11, which is coming out for Win7 as well anyway.

Look back at how things have changed since 1863 and you can't begin to comprehend where we could be in even 100 more years.

I wasn't alive in 1863....and neither were you.

I know you're a troll, but really? 150 years is too much of a stretch, eh? If you're really going to be like that, lets make it a bit smaller. 100 years? 50 years? People who are alive today will tell you how much things have changed even in that time. Heck, even within my own life time things have changed. A lot.

I Welched on my bet and it led to a Mexican standoff with another guy who was an Indian giver. In the end we settled it with a game of Russian Roulette. It was chaos, a real Polish Parliament. In the end, the gun didn't go off and we all felt like we were Gypped and the Canadians were sorry about the whole mess even though they were not involved at all.

That whole post was Double-Dutch to me. As confusing as a game of Chinese whispers.

Take a look to see if there are any corresponding changes in rate of autism? Here's a nice chance to run a natural experiment--the non-vaccinated become the test group...

There wasn't.

This would have became apparent relatively quickly; this measles outbreak may be 15 years after the fact, but the autism rates would have been affected within the first few years if there was anything in this. They weren't.

The research that linked autism with this vaccination was soundly debunked within a few years of being released. The original paper was fully retracted in 2004, and the researcher found guilty of misconduct and fraud.

The really sad part is that even a decade after the story was retracted, there are still some people who are convinced that they shouldn't immunise their kids.

The trouble is that we live in a world where these diseases don't scare us any more because we don't see them. They ought to. If you want to know what happens to populations without immunity that are exposed to measles, try reading up on what happened when the Conquistadors introduced it to South America.

Nah, if you read what he said, he only claims to own the upper case letter. We're safe to keep using the lower case 'e'. (unless someone else owns that, of course, but that would be silly, wouldn't it)